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After a two year hiatus, Kat Dahlia is readying a new album for July on Epic Records. If first single “Friday Night Majic” is any inkling, expect a sound and feel that harks back to 90s Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson.

Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon is a Grammy-winning musician and producer best-known for his work with Timbaland. He got his start in Texas, playing gospel and jazz with people like Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, and Wayman Tisdale, while producing the occasional hip-hop record. But once he met Timbaland about ten years ago, his career took off.

The next time you’re screaming at a Beyoncé show, or catching The Grammys on TV, or watching the Super Bowl, keep in mind that these pinnacles of popular entertainment all have one thing in common—Dallas. To the outside world, the image of the Dallas-Fort Worth area (“DFW” to its residents) is a mix of cowboy hats, big hair, wild cat sports team owners and J.R. Ewing. When it comes to music, you may think metal (Drowning Pool, Pantera) or country (Dixie Chicks and, um, well, Dixie Chicks). But Dallas isn’t Austin, and it isn’t Houston, or anything resembling those other stereotypes. And as it turns out, it’s more influential than both.

Saying the word “Dallas” conjures up more images of oil rigs than of guitar rigs. Yet the city has long been one of popular music’s best-kept secrets. Musicians from the Dallas-Fort Worth area have quietly been taking over popular music over the past nearly two decades, and two people from within the scene are trying to bring this movement to the light.

Justin Timberlake said it best: “Lawd, have mercy!” It was perhaps the evening’s most-anticipated performance, and the Memphis-born R&B-vibed pop star and New Artist of the Year winner Chris Stapleton positively slammed their rendition of the George Jones classic “Tennessee Whiskey” and Timberlake’s “Drink You Away,” accompanied by a dynamite brass band and Stapleton’s wife Morgane on vocals.